Masculinizing national service: the cultural reproduction of masculinities and militarization of male citizenship in Singapore

Lowe, John

doi:10.1080/09589236.2019.1604329

Cited by 18 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…State discourses also progressively reveal the government's use of legal, political, and cultural pressure to make men live up to their obligations as “breadwinners” and “heads‐of‐households” (Lim, 2021, p. 49). Moreover, male conscription instills in men the understanding that “femininity is associated with vulnerability and the need for protection through peace and security” (Lowe, 2019, p. 690). The status of women in the SPF reflect these contradictions.…”

Section: The Gendering Of Police Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexism without sexists: Gender‐blind frames in police work

Lim

2023

Gender Work & Organization

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This article examines policewomen's experiences of work in the Singapore Police Force (SPF). In recent years, female officers in the SPF have accomplished many “firsts,” alluding to women not only succeeding in entering the male‐dominated profession but attaining equal status as their male counterparts. Based on in‐depth interviews and content analysis, however, policewomen in the SPF are still confronting various forms of gender discrimination, with female officers navigating masculine norms, a gendered division of labor, and sexual harassment at work. How can we explain this disjuncture between the SPF's rhetoric of gender neutrality and policewomen's reality of gender inequality? We argue that first, the SPF as an organization, and some policewomen themselves, adopt gender‐blind frames to interpret any forms of gender discrimination, by insisting that they do not see gender or that gender does not matter in the organization. Second, sexist practices have evolved from overt to covert forms of gender discrimination. Because of this shift in how gender discrimination manifests in the organization, the SPF and some policewomen do not perceive those practices as sexist but as normal, everyday language and behavior. This article seeks to identify those amorphous forms of sexism enacted upon policewomen that, in turn, reflect the recursive relationship between individual‐level interactions and structurally embedded occupational practices.

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Section: The Gendering Of Police Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexism without sexists: Gender‐blind frames in police work

Lim

2023

Gender Work & Organization

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“…The Nigerian military appears to be traditionally conceptualised in regimented masculinity in its practices, ideologies, operations, and language use. Generally, masculinity denotes ruggedness, perseverance, muscular manliness, forcefulness, and self-discipline; it reinforces the plurality of how men perceive the world to maintain power and domination (Lowe, 2019). The notion of masculinity is therefore coded and rehearsed in male-dominated organisations where cohesive ideals are propagated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Officers and men and fallen heroes: The discursive construction of regimented masculinity in the Nigerian Army

Uwen,

Alruwaili

2024

Forum Linguist. Stud.

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This paper examines the use of gendered language in the Nigerian Army’s community of practice through the application of insights from language ideology and theory of masculinity. Data were generated by means of participant observation and semi-structured interviews in a one-year fieldwork involving representative sample of 18 personnel of the 6 Battalion, Ibawa and 2 Brigade, Uyo, both in Akwa Ibom State in South-eastern Nigeria. The findings show that the Nigerian Army maintains institutional gendered language practices used among its personnel in regimented functions and social events. The gendered registers occur in the soldiers’ generic use of male address terms, adaptation to male-coded voice pattern in parades, masculinisation of Army’s workout songs, and the subordination of femininity in institutional associations, all combined to construct the regimented and performative masculinisation of the profession. This practice is observed to be informed by the numerical domination of men in the profession that was originally perceived as males’; a conception that has shaped the linguistic ideology and performance of the Nigerian Army to rehearse masculine orientations. It is however recommended that the Army’s language practices should capture modern ideals of a gender sensitive world that connect to the clamour for gender equality and equal social belonging through the inclusion of feminine linguistic markers in workplaces.

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“…This results in the accumulation of additional masculine capital and an unequal access to resources which privileges NS, hegemonic masculinity, and male citizenship. While studies such as Lowe (2019) and Chan (2021) have looked at NS in relation to masculinity and male citizenship in Singapore, the importance of NS as a key factor of the gender pay gap in the labour market has remained largely underexamined, of which this thesis highlights and emphasises the links between NS, male citizenship, masculine capital, and the gender pay gap.…”

Section: Chapter 1: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When examining the relationship between gender, the gender pay gap, and citizenship, it becomes crucial to consider the influence of militarism. Masculinized institutions like the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) play a significant role in shaping male citizenship and establishing distinctions from female citizenship (Lowe, 2019). Therefore, it is important to explore the interconnectedness of the workplace, the household, and the military as overlapping arenas where gendered citizenship and gender inequalities are both produced and regulated.…”

Section: Chapter 1: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While much of existing scholarship focus on the discrimination of women and women's work, my thesis analyses the gender pay gap through an additional lens of masculine capital and privilege. Adding on to Lowe's (2019) study on masculine capital and citizenship in the Singapore army, I theorise how gendered citizenship is a key component in perpetuating the gender pay gap and the gendered division of labour in the home, giving rise to masculine capital in the workplace that privileges men over women while at the same time imposing a feminine penalty that devalues feminised work done in the home. This results in the accumulation of additional masculine capital and an unequal access to resources which privileges NS, hegemonic masculinity, and male citizenship.…”

Section: Chapter 1: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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We, the citizens of Singapore: a study of the gender pay gap through the lens of gendered citizenship

Wee

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Masculinizing national service: the cultural reproduction of masculinities and militarization of male citizenship in Singapore

Cited by 18 publications

References 44 publications

Sexism without sexists: Gender‐blind frames in police work

Sexism without sexists: Gender‐blind frames in police work

Officers and men and fallen heroes: The discursive construction of regimented masculinity in the Nigerian Army

We, the citizens of Singapore: a study of the gender pay gap through the lens of gendered citizenship

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